The Ontario Reign faced off against the Colorado Eagles Friday night in Ontario, California.
Aaron Dell was in between the pipes for Ontario, as was Justus Annunen for Colorado.
Ontario’s first three minutes of the game were electric. You can feel the energy not only on the ice, but in the building, as the Kings sent down Brandt Clarke, Samuel Fagemo, and Alex Turcotte for the NHL all star break.
Oskar Olausson scored on a 4 on 4 to start the night for Colorado, a wrist shot by the blocker side of Dell.
In the second period, Callahan Burke scored back to back goals, both assisted by Ivan Ivan, giving the Eagles a three score lead.
Later in the middle period, Brandt Clarke scored a deflection goal off an original shot from Kevin Connauton, to cut the Eagles lead down to two.
The Reign had two power play chances, one to end the second period and one to start the third period, all for not. Ontario failed to score on big chances to bring the game within one.
Colorado then extended their lead in credit to Peter Holland scoring on the man advantage.
One big bright spot in this game is Colton Young scoring the first AHL goal of his career. A great milestone for a promising young kid.
Ontario failed to dig themselves out of the hole, falling 5-2 and getting swept by the Eagles in front of the home crowd.
Here are my three takeaways from the loss
Another slow start
Once again, the Reign started off way too slow, and picked it up as the game moved along. It is starting to become a regular occurrence now, and is something head coach Marco Sturm needs to get through to his team.
Even though the first few minutes it seemed like the Reign had a different sense of life to them, it quickly wore off right after.
The Reign are going to need to figure out their slow start problem quick, before they find themselves looking up in the standings to more and more teams.
Big Three Were Quiet
There was a lot of anticipation for Clarke, Fagemo, and Turcotte prior to tonight’s game. Fagemo even got a loud roar when his name was called during starting lineups.
Outside of the Clarke goal, these three guys were pretty quiet. Head coach Marco Sturm even went on to say that these guys were simply “not good.”
It is very tough to go to the big leagues, and come back down to the AHL. Turcotte mentioned how the speed of the game is still fast, but a little more “chaotic.”
Home Struggles Continue
Ontario has now lost four in a row in their own building. Scary enough, the Reign have eight home games in their next eleven games.
Similar to my message for starting games way too slow, the Reign need to figure out how to win on their home ice.
On Saturday, the Calgary Wranglers come to town for another day of Pink in the rink. The arena should be packed, as the Reign look to use the fans momentum and win a game at home.